By Jeff Labine

P.A. pot billboard draws eyes

Jan 19, 2017 | 4:00 PM

While a new billboard is directing would-be marijuana buyers online, a potential Prince Albert distributor is arguing shoppers should stay local.

Motorists driving down Second Ave. might have noticed the electronic billboard displaying a sign that features what looks like a marijuana leaf along with a company’s name and a link to a website. The link takes shoppers to Erbachay, an online medical cannabis dispensary based in B.C. The billboard in P.A. is just one of many that has been popping up across the province.

Nowhere on the Erbachay billboard does it implicitly advertise the sale of cannabis and marijuana.

Health Canada has strict rules around advertising marijuana sales as the federal government official cannot endorse the use of the drug until the law has changed. A licensed producer who is found in violation of the laws could face fines ranging from $250,000 to $5 million, up to two years in jail or both.

So far, Saskatchewan only has two licensed distributors and Mark McCaul is hoping to add his name to the list.

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McCaul is working on becoming a distributor in P.A. but requires approval from Health Canada before moving forward. He said he was told they would get back to him soon and added a police officer would have to walk him through the process of actually distributing.

He said he didn’t know about the billboard but wasn’t surprised to hear that it was directing shoppers to purchase online. He argued a local store would benefit people much more since companies online want shoppers to buy in bulk.

“If you order something that doesn’t really work with you, if you find that it doesn’t help you in certain ways, then you basically purchased all this medicine and it is not going to help you,” he said. “With a storefront, it would be much better due to the fact they could come in and have smaller samples of that medicine and see what works for them.”

McCaul, like many other Canadians, are waiting on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rollout his new legislation on the drug. Trudeau in a recent town hall in Quebec told the crowd to continue to wait patiently.

Until then, police are continuing to enforce the current laws. Just last month Prince Albert police charged a man and a woman with several offences following a drug bust where more than 1,300 grams of marijuana was seized as well as 43 grams of cannabis resin and five marijuana plants.

McCaul said the last time he spoke with Health Canada, he brought up the slow progress from the Trudeau government and mentioned the public appears to know more about what’s going on than government employees.

“It seems to be a ‘hurry up and wait’ game,” he said. “The public is thinking the same thing as everyone else – how is this going to go down? How are they going to proceed through this?”

He added there’s a real demand for alternative medicine and more people are looking for holistic and natural options. He argued medical marijuana is far less addictive when compared to some prescription drugs.

Mayor Greg Dionne said he was disappointed when he saw the billboard.

“We all know the government is going to legalize it and bring legislation in,” he said. “Part of the legalization too is a very strict advertising criteria similar to tobacco. What has happened is this company has taken advantage of the law not being in place yet and have sort of jumped the gun. So it is disappointing.”

Dionne was concerned that the billboard might give the impression the law around selling marijuana has already changed. An additional concern, he said, is not knowing for sure if the substances purchased online are actually coming from a licensed distributor.

He said there’s simply too many unanswered questions and mentioned that he has asked the city’s police chief to look at what they should be doing with the billboard. He warned residents to be cautious if they are considering purchasing anything from the company.

“You are dealing with a company from British Columbia,” he added. “If they are willing to ship you something, you don’t what they are selling.”

Prince Albert police were not readily available for comment on this story after repeated attempts by paNOW.

Jeff Labine is paNOW’s health and education reporter. He can be reached at Jeff.Labine@jpbg.ca or tweet him @labinereporter.